Changes in real estate demand faster adoption of tech

“All of that is leading to technology and data-led solutions becoming central to everybody’s value-add,” she said in an interview with Real Asset Media.

Amro considers real-time data very important in measuring operational emissions. “If you have a standing building and you want to know how much energy you’re consuming and where you can make savings, you cannot do it without actually going in, monitoring it and seeing the patterns,” Kotecha said.

While measuring energy is critical on the ‘E’-front, on the ‘S’ front real estate has gone through a dislocation period. “When you drill into it there has been a complete change of view about what offices mean and stand for with remote working. At the same time, homes have had to become more adept with people working from home.” That implies that high-tech “smart” homes are needed along with offices that are welcoming communities for brainstorming sessions.

“Again, this is very tech intensive so in every single aspect when you look at whether it’s decarbonisation, dislocation, any of these critical mega trends that we want to address, technology has become critical and central to addressing them.”

She said that the UK PropTech Association is playing a central role in getting adopters and prop tech startups to have a collaborative approach.

“All I wish is that everybody adopts faster. There isn’t one size fits all, that’s very clear. There is a plethora of solutions out there and not all of them are going to make sense to every company. Everybody’s at a different part of the journey.”

Watch the video interview here.

This article was first published by Real Asset Insight.